Weekly Food for Thought – Insights into Breakthroughs

Saturday, November 17, 2012

‘The value of information is equal to the value of its impact.’ ~ Thomas Bjorge

Dear Friends,

This week’s note finds me in beautiful Croatia, where I am assisting at an International NLP Congress, presented by two of the most influential minds in the field of NLP – Dr. John Grinder and Carmen Bostic St. Clair.

And preparing for this event, I spent some time thinking about breakthroughs I had during the seminars and workshops where I was in the role of a participant.

It brought to mind instances that were marked with ‘aha moments’, with powerful insights and with ‘now I know how to…’ empty phrases. I must admit, that most of the above mentioned insights were useful and have greatly contributed to my growth.

Insights are ok

I shared these musings with my dear friend Thomas, who noted that insights are ok, but what happens if you stop at them, and fail to integrate them? The answer is, of course – nothing, absolutely nothing!

Choosing to do nothing with these insights is ok if you are only after theoretical knowledge, something to chat about over a coffee, or want to daydream about what life would be like if you were to capitalize on them, exploit them, use them for your benefit…

In our lifetime, many great insights lose momentum, purely because we choose to indulge in learning for the sake of learning, whilst forgetting that information without application is as useful as Beethoven’s music sheets in the hands of a giraffe.

So the question is:

How do you turn a powerful insight into an earth-shattering breakthrough?

The answer is simple: Act on it! Take action! A massive one! The key lies in using all the learnings we have and applying them consistently and congruently. As that very action you decide to take, based on an insight, is worth more than ten actionless insights!

A word of warning: the feedback you get from taking that action will often give you new insights that will make you want to act.

So with this in mind, I invite you to, right now take a few minutes and think about all the insights that you’ve had over the years, consider what effective actions you can take, decide and then ACT.

Thomas Björge – ITA NLP (International Trainers Academy of NLP) Accredited New Code and Classic Code NLP Trainer and Master Coach and Designer of New Code Game ‘Arrows’, to be featured in Dr. John Grinder’s upcoming book.